* [[Brief discussion of how communities fits into the overall schema of ALA on the web]]

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[JoiningACommunity Joining a Community]

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==Status of the Online Communities Project==

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Until Fall 2006, internal discussion about Online Communities centered on using it for committee and committee-like work, but also as the foundation for a social networking tool. However, ALA staff recently decided that the software is not viable for the social networking piece, so we need to build something separate for that.

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Consult the [http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_User%27s_Guide User's Guide] for information on using the wiki software.

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This decision allowed us to refocus on OC for group work, so Louise Gruenberg and I did a preliminary evaluation of what needs to be fixed in the current OC product to make it usable for that purpose.

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== Getting started ==

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Unfortunately, "usable" translates to "lots of work" at this point, so we listed a lot of "bare minimum" things here on this wiki. The developer of the OC software is going to look these over, tell us what we could do ourselves versus what he'll have to do, and then give us a quote for his work.

So the project is in a bit of limbo right now while we wait for the quote, and very little will happen until February because Midwinter is looming big. Look for updates here and on the [http://blogs.ala.org/ittsupdate.php?cat=92 ITTS blog].

Until Fall 2006, internal discussion about Online Communities centered on using it for committee and committee-like work, but also as the foundation for a social networking tool. However, ALA staff recently decided that the software is not viable for the social networking piece, so we need to build something separate for that.

This decision allowed us to refocus on OC for group work, so Louise Gruenberg and I did a preliminary evaluation of what needs to be fixed in the current OC product to make it usable for that purpose.

Unfortunately, "usable" translates to "lots of work" at this point, so we listed a lot of "bare minimum" things here on this wiki. The developer of the OC software is going to look these over, tell us what we could do ourselves versus what he'll have to do, and then give us a quote for his work.

The size of that number will help us determine if we can move forward with the existing product or if we need to find something else.

So the project is in a bit of limbo right now while we wait for the quote, and very little will happen until February because Midwinter is looming big. Look for updates here and on the ITTS blog.
- Jenny Levine 09:58, 3 January 2007 (CST)